Friday, January 16, 2015

Chicken Soup Recipe

Recipe for Chicken/barley/lentil/brown rice soup

Chicken soup is great anytime of the year, especially during the winter. IT will fill the house and stomach’s with a low cost, and high in comfort food value to you and family. Be experimental, and find what works best for you and family.

Pre-determine how much chicken you wish to use.

I have used as much as a whole chicken or as little as a 1/4 chicken. You can use leftover’s from a rotisserie chicken, or other chicken meals. It can also be raw.

My preferred is four thighs, as the thigh bone is the only bone to have to remove.

Bring a large stock pot of water to full boil.

While it is heating up, prepare the chicken, by pulling off all skin, and washing.

Place chicken in pot and bring to a rolling boil for about 20 minutes.

Place your own favorite seasonings in the pot. It will serve as a “potpourri” filling the house with good smells, so make sure everyone is on board with your seasonings.

Mine is:

One onion finely diced.

Two Jalapeños finely diced.

6 carrots sliced to bite size. (optional)

Turmeric: to taste. At least a tsp.(teaspoon not table spoon)

Garlic: to taste: at least a tsp, more if wanted, or finely dice a few cloves of garlic.

Salt to taste and/or use Seasoning salt, or some flavored salt, like cajon or Caribbean.

Favorite chicken rub seasoning. 1 tsp. I like McCormick.

10 sprouts of cilantro, finely diced. (optional)

Red Pepper: 1/4 tsp. (optional)(less is better)

Be creative with what you know you and your family like.

Two chicken bouillon cubes (optional).

After at least 20 minutes of a rolling boil, let cool. You can leave it overnight in a spare refrigerator and in the morning, skim off all fat, and remove the bones. You can also pull out the chicken, and let it cool enough to handle. Once all bones are removed, place back in pot and slow cook for two hours or more.

This is when you put in a cup of barley, a cup of brown rice and a cup of lentils. You can also experiment, with other combinations of grains, legumes or beans. I like to bring the entire mix to a boil, and then turn down and let simmer for two to four hours.

It fills the house with good smells, so it is important to only use ingredients that work for you and family. Some find that Red Pepper or Jalapeno’s are an irritation, and others like more garlic , etc.

You really can’t mess it up, except to put too much salt or too much red pepper or too many jalapeno's.

You can serve it immediately after or let it sit overnight. The barley will swell and make it less soupy the longer it sits.